Preview: France vs Ivory Coast - prediction, team news, lineups

France kick-start their preparations for the 2026 World Cup on Thursday night when they play host to Ivory Coast in a warm-up match at the Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes.

The two nations meet for the first time since March 2022 when Les Bleus claimed a narrow 2-1 friendly victory, with Aurelien Tchouameni netting a stoppage-time winner.

Match preview

France head into this summer’s World Cup as FIFA’s highest-ranked nation and will attempt to become the third country in football history - after West Germany (1982, 1986, 1990) and Brazil (1994, 1998, 2002) - to reach three successive World Cup finals.

Twenty years after winning their first World Cup, France became champions in 2018 before losing a thrilling 2022 final on penalties to Argentina. Long-serving head coach Didier Deschamps will step down after the 2026 tournament and boasts a talented squad listed as one of the bookmakers’ favourites to go all the way in North America to claim a third world title.

After reaching the Euro 2024 semi-finals and finishing third in the UEFA Nations League, Les Bleus enjoyed an unbeaten 2026 World Cup qualification campaign, winning five and drawing one of their six matches to top their group ahead of Ukraine, Iceland and Azerbaijan.

Over the last 12 months, France have won eight of their last nine international fixtures (D1), scoring at least two goals in all nine matches; they most recently beat Brazil 2-1 and Colombia 3-1 in friendlies during March’s international break.

France are also unbeaten in three previous encounters with Ivory Coast (W2 D1), and spirits are understandably high within Deschamps’s camp amid all the outside noise and relentless pressure to win football’s biggest prize this summer.

After failing to qualify for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, Ivory Coast will be one of 10 African nations competing at the newly-expanded 2026 tournament after an impressive CAF qualification campaign.

Eight wins and two draws were posted in their 10 matches, remarkably scoring 25 goals without reply to top their six-team group, finishing their campaign in style with a thumping 7-0 win over Seychelles and a 3-0 success against Kenya in October 2025.

Ivory Coast then held the 2025-26 Africa Cup of Nations and progressed to the quarter-finals where they suffered a 3-2 defeat to Egypt. Since that loss in January, the Elephants have celebrated back-to-back friendly wins without conceding, hitting four unanswered goals past South Korea before securing a slender 1-0 victory over Scotland in March.

Head coach Emerse Fae has had a positive impact since taking the reins two-and-a-half years ago, with Ivory Coast winning 67.7% of their 31 matches across all competitive and non-competitive fixtures (W21 D5 L5), scoring close to two goals per game on average.

Ranked 34th in the world by FIFA, Ivory Coast will hope to produce a positive display in Thursday’s encounter with France, before preparing for three Group E fixtures against Germany, Ecuador and Curacao at the World Cup.

France form (all competitions):

Ivory Coast form (all competitions):

Team News

France centre-back William Saliba has emerged as a major doubt for the World Cup and is not expected to play on Thursday after aggravating a back injury during Arsenal’s Champions League final defeat to Paris Saint-Germain last weekend.

Deschamps may also consider resting Ousmane Dembele, Desire Doue, Bradley Barcola, Warren Zaire-Emery and Lucas Hernandez following their UCL triumph with PSG.

Real Madrid-bound Ibrahima Konate could step in for Saliba and start at centre-back, while 35-year-old N’Golo Kante - the oldest member of Deschamps’s squad - is a contender to start in centre-midfield.

Kylian Mbappe is just one goal away from equalling the all-time scoring record for France held by Olivier Giroud (57) and the Los Blancos attacker is available to start either as a left-winger or as a central striker, though he is unlikely to play the full 90 minutes.

As for Ivory Coast, they have been forced to make an early change to their World Cup squad, as defender ‌Clement Akpa has been ruled out through injury, with left-back Christopher Operi taking his place.

Right-back Guela Doue and winger Simon Adingra both play their club football in Ligue 1 with Strasbourg and Monaco respectively, and they are both in contention to start, as is in-demand RB Leipzig star Yan Diomande, who scored 12 Bundesliga goals in the 2025-26 season.

Nicolas Pepe netted the opener in the aforementioned 2022 friendly defeat to France, while he concluded the 2025-26 campaign with Villarreal by recording seven goal contributions in his final six La Liga appearances (three goals, four assists).

France possible starting lineup:

Maignan; Kounde, Konate, Upamecano, Digne; Kante, Tchouameni; Olise, Cherki, Mbappe; Thuram

Ivory Coast possible starting lineup:

Y. Fofana; Doue, Kossounou, Diomande, Konan; Sangare, Kessie, S. Fofana; Pepe, Wahi, Diomande

We say: France 3-1 Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast are certainly no pushovers and will back themselves to make the net ripple, having scored 13 goals across their last five games. However, they will enter Thursday’s contest as underdogs.

France should still field a talented lineup, even if Deschamps decides to rest some key players. When taking into account the fact that they have never lost in 10 previous matches played in Nantes (W9 D1), we can see Les Bleus navigating their way to another victory on home soil.

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